Come Follow Me Lesson April 2013 The Apostasy and Restoration: How was the priesthood restored?

Even though I'm the time is drawing near that Matt and I will be married (only 5 more days) and moving to Provo and I'll no longer be the Young Women's president of the Alturas Branch I was told I should still share my ideas about how I teach my lessons.

Today's lesson was "How was the priesthood restored?"  None of the materials in this lesson were original, so I've of course will give credit to all sources and the link so you can find the materials for yourself.

I began this lesson the same way I began last week with quotes from General Conference pinned on the wall.  I asked each girl and leader to choose any quote they want and do a quick write of what the prophet/apostle/general authority was trying to teach us and why it is important to follow this counsel.  I decided to start doing this because I wanted to keep conference fresh and all still get the messages across to the girls who didn't watch conference. Thanks to My Computer is my Canvas I got the quotes here and here.


Last week's lesson was on why was a restoration necessary.  Since one of my Young Women were gone last week and may not know a whole a lot about the apostasy and restoration I decided to use the first page of this worksheet from The Red Headed Hostess as a fun review.  It ended up taking quite a bit of time but it was apparent by the end how much everyone knew about the restoration. I wanted to do this object lesson, but forgot to buy cups the night before.  It worked out because we wouldn't have had enough time anyway.  I explained the object lesson to the girls anyway and that seemed to make the apostasy and restoration more clear for those who were still having a hard time understanding.



From there we related what we knew about was lost as part of the apostasy, including the priesthood.  I handed out these handouts to make sure the girls knew what priesthood is (I really try to focus the beginning of my lessons on understanding Gospel vocabulary because not everyone knows what certain words mean) and how it was restored.

 

After that we watched this video about how the priesthood was restored. I really love this video. I love that scripture helps narrate it.  It helped me understand the events of the restoration of the priesthood so much better.

We then had a priesthood holder come in and share his priesthood line of authority with us.  This was really cool and I emphasized how the priesthood that is held by worthy priesthood holders today has a direct line back to Christ.

We ran out of time today, so we didn't get to do what we normally do. We normally right the questions from each lesson on a large piece of sticky paper and answer them at the end of the lesson.  It gives the girls the chance to show what they know and help the teachers see if the lesson was effective and what touched/inspired the girls.  Next Sunday each girl will answer the question "How was the priesthood restored?" at the beginning of the lesson.  So the girls' assignment is to retain that information for next week and be prepared to share by writing the answers on the large piece of sticky paper.  Not the most original assignment but it works for us because it meets the needs of the girls and the lesson for the day.

Reflection on a General Conference Talk April 2013 #1

What difference will General Conference really make in our lives if we just leave it as a first weekend in April or October that we watch or listen to prophets and apostles speak inspired messages to us?  If we just leave them to be as memories of those weekends and not ponder, pray, and incorporate them into our daily lives, they will simply be just that memories rather than the guidance we need to help us live a happy, productive life.

Having said that I bring you a reflection on President Boyd K. Packer's talk "These Things I Know."  This will be an ongoing post as I feel inspired to carefully pay attention to his words and record my thoughts to them, so this may take awhile.

Tonight I read this article.  In it the author of the referred to article talks about his frustrations as a teacher.  He refers to all of his frustrations as things that make him tired.  As I read this I thought, I'm grateful I don't feel tired as a teacher.  Now more than ever since I began my teaching career I feel the same sense of excitement I did when I first did when I was a student teacher. 

There are too many teachers who fall victim to the trap of feeling like they can't escape the system.  They worry they have to play the game or they will lose their jobs.  These are the teachers who will feel tired and burned out.

When I see blogs like Adventures of a Third Grade Teacher, Adventures of a 6th Grade Teacher, My Life as a Third Grade Teacher, The Science Penguin, One Extra Degree, A Teeny Tiny Teacher, 4th Grade Frolics, Common Core Activities, and *Bunting, Books, and Bainbridge* I am inspired by these teachers who despite being under the same stresses all the other teachers in the country are still are creative and have fun teaching.  These bloggers are the GREAT TEACHERS! Thank you to them for posting great ideas and discussions to help motivate me.

Along with blogs, you would have to have been living under a rock for the last year if you are a teacher not know anything about teacherspayteachers.com and pinterest.com.  Between these two sites you can find everything you need to make you're lessons engaging and exciting.

There are so many more resources out there that I cannot even begin to name.  I am so thankful for the Internet for that reason. 

California is just now rolling out the Common Core Standards and I couldn't be more excited about them.  While I was a student teacher I learned the importance of depth not breath while teaching.  Readers and Writers Workshop approaches brought this point home for me.  Unfortunately when I started teaching I felt like I couldn't carry out this philosophy, mainly because of the reasons the author of the referred to article mentions.  But this year because of the introduction of the Common Core Standards, the support of a principal who thinks outside of the box, and my combination classroom which has allowed me to develop my own methods separate from other classrooms at my school I have felt myself become the teacher I knew I wanted to be when I was a teacher. 

Now I feel like I will never fall into the trap of being too tired with a lack of creativity or energy. I am on my way to finding out who I am as a teacher and am so excited to see where that leads me.  I love being a TEACHER!!!!

Opinions

So I realized it's kind of a scary thing to post anything that is of the nature of an opinion on the internet.  Tonight I got on a craze of posting pictures from a Facebook page called "You Can't Scare Me, I'm a Teacher." Some of them expressed the flaws in the education system and some of expressed the joys of teaching.  As I posted them I realized that when someone posts something on the internet it is so easy to believe that musts be what that person believes, has believed, and will always will believe if they go that far to make it so public.  But I realize that is not the case with me and probably isn't that way for many other people.

I haven't been writing on this blog for anyone else. I've been writing in it for me.  You could say why not just write in a journal if writing on this is just for you, but even though the blog is for me I still like the idea that others can read it.  It is through that ability to share writing that ideas about our own human experiences are shared and we can all learn and grow together because of our shared and not so common experiences. 

So having said that, I realize that this blog is a really place for me to go develop my ideas.  I like hearing the best of both sides of the story.  That is one reason I love blogs and the internet.  I love that you can get so much information from them.  Then I like to think on my own about what I have read.  I like to listen to myself and pay attention to what I feel as I apply what I'm reading to me.

Nothing on this blog will probably ever be really polished. In truth, I never go back and reread what I have written on it until sometimes days after I published it (I know don't tell my students I'm bad example of what I tell them to do).  But really what I hope I do help my students see is that writing doesn't have to be about perfect conventions all of the time.  It's about helping you learn where you stand on certain issues, and that is really what this blog is for me.  It's my place to come and explore my ever changing thoughts and opinions.

I'm grateful...

There's not enough time this morning for me to write about everything I would like to write about, so instead I'm simply going to list off a few things I'm thankful for this morning.

1.  I'm thankful for this blog.  Writing truly has become my therapy. :) It makes me happy.

2. I'm thankful for the scriptures.  There is an undeniable peace that I obtain when I read the scriptures which testifies to me they are true.

3. I'm thankful this past weekend was General Conference and for modern technology.  The words of the prophets are already transcribed on lds.org for all to view.  I am excited to begin reading and studying them more.  I'm sure one or more of them will at some point become topics for the blog.

4. I'm thankful for my job.  Even though it will be soon coming to an end I'm really grateful I have it now and have for the last four years.  The students and teachers I have met have richly blessed my life.  I'm also grateful for just teaching in general.  I love everything about it.

5. I'm thankful for the Lord's timing.  Right now I'm busy looking for a new job to start next school year.  During our writing time in class yesterday, the thought came to me what if I don't find a job, as I chose to write about this thought ideas came to my mind about what wonderful things the year could still hold for me even if I didn't find a full-time job (another blessing of writing). When I realized this I became much more at peace and realized everything will be just perfect.  I'm grateful for the Lord's hand in my life and continue to ask for continued faith to let everything work out as it will.

Therapy

As I corrected papers this evening and readied for bed, I realized how joyful I felt. I realized that reading and writing are my therapy. Not just one or the other - both.  Because of both I feel an inner me being freed. I feel free in the sense that reading allows me to take new thoughts and ideas which I am passionate about and writing because it allows me to explore my own thoughts and ideas.  I feel very grateful this evening to be me. 

The Job Search

At the risk of hoping this post does not hinder me being offered a job if seen by a future employer, I'm going to go ahead and post about my current status in the job hunt.

Last month I officially resigned from Alturas Elementary School. It was bittersweet indeed.  AES and the community has been the perfect place for me to begin my career.  Now I'm moving on to the great state of Utah with my wonderful soon-to-be hubby Matthew! :) I am so excited to begin this new adventure with him.

To prepare for moving to Utah I have been busy looking for an elementary teaching position.  As of yesterday I have applied to a total of 144 jobs! I know, that's a lot! And as of yesterday I got my first rejection emails... 15 to be exact! Well, that's still 129 to go so let's see what today brings...